Grocery Store Skincare Lookalikes Might Save You Hundreds. Yet, Do Budget Beauty Products Actually Work?

Rachael Parnell

After discovering Rachael Parnell found out a discounter was launching a new skincare range that looked similar to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper dashed to her nearest outlet to buy the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 of the luxury brand 50ml product.

The streamlined blue tube and gold top of each items look strikingly similar. While she has not tested the high-end cream, she states she's impressed by the dupe so far.

She has been using beauty alternatives from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

Over a quarter of UK buyers report they've bought a skincare or makeup dupe. This increases to nearly half among 18-34 year olds, according to a recently published study.

Alternatives are skincare products that imitate well-known companies and present budget-friendly substitutes to premium products. These products typically have alike names and packaging, but in some cases the ingredients can differ considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Better'

Beauty specialists argue some dupes to high-end labels are decent standard and help make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion higher-priced is invariably better," says skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not every budget skincare brand is poor - and not every premium skincare product is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are really amazing," adds a podcast host, who runs a podcast about public figures.

A lot of of the items inspired by luxury labels "disappear so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional argues alternatives are suitable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and cleansers.

"These products will be effective," he explains. "These items will do the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

Another skin doctor, thinks you can cut costs when seeking single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"If you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be alright in opting for a budget alternative or something which is very low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Container'

Yet the experts also recommend shoppers check details and state that higher-priced products are sometimes worth the additional cost.

With luxury beauty products, you're not just covering the brand and promotion - sometimes the elevated price also is due to the formula and their grade, the potency of the key component, the technology used to develop the product, and trials into the item's efficacy, she says.

Facialist another professional suggests it's important questioning how certain dupes can be sold so cheaply.

Occasionally, she believes they could include less effective components that don't have as many benefits for the complexion, or the materials might not be as well sourced.

"The big uncertainty is 'How is it so cheap?'" she remarks.

Podcast host McGlynn notes on occasion he's purchased skincare items that appear similar to a well-known label but the actual formula has "little similarity to the premium version".

"Don't be fooled by the packaging," he added.

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For advanced items or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the complexion if they're not created accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, the specialist recommends using research-backed labels.

She states these will likely have been through expensive tests to assess how effective they are.

Skincare items need to be assessed before they can be sold in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the brand states about the performance of the product, it needs evidence to verify it, "but the brand does not always have to perform the testing" and can instead reference evidence conducted by other firms, she says.

Read the Label of the Bottle

Are there any components that could suggest a product is low-quality?

Components on the back of the container are ordered by concentration. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up